Undergraduate Sideshow

One hundred and twenty-five delegates slept in the city jail. Democrats carried a big banner saying ROOSEVELT AGAIN, AGAIN AND AGAIN. Liberal-Independents had as their official emblem a giraffe, "because it sticks its neck out." At the height of the Republican convention, a huge papier-mache-headed elephant opened up and out tumbled a bevy of college girls.

So went the first of the 1940 national political conventions, held last week by 305 delegates from 25 colleges (including Columbia, Washington, Arkansas, Missouri) at Westminster College, Fulton, Mo. It was the biggest college rump convention ever staged.

Westminster College (enrollment: 317), an old Presbyterian institution, is politically-conscious beyond all proportion to its size. Its president is Dr. Franc Lewis ("Bullet") McCluer, a 1932 Presidential elector for Franklin Roosevelt. Since last fall he has welcomed to the college as speakers Republican Chairman John Hamilton, two Presidential hopefuls--James A. Farley and Paul V. McNutt. Also scheduled to speak there are Candidates Thomas Dewey, Robert A. Taft.

At last week's undergraduate sideshow, a leader of the Democrats, convened in the Fulton courthouse, was Gene Milligan, son of Pendergast-busting U. S. District Attorney Maurice M. Milligan. Keynoter: U. S. Senator Burton K. Wheeler. Liberal-Independents, meeting in the chapel, heard Socialist Professor Maynard Krueger. Battle broke out among the Republicans, housed in the gymnasium, when Missouri U.'s Hirst Mendenhall, a cousin of Herbert Hoover, tried to get elected convention chairman, was defeated by Westminster's John Stone. Their keynoter was former Missouri Governor Arthur M. Hyde.

Taking time out only to dance with girls from three neighboring colleges, the delegates drafted platforms (salient feature: all were emphatically against U. S. involvement in World War II). No surprise was Franklin Roosevelt's nomination by the Democrats by a whopping majority of no votes. Runner-up: Robert Jackson, 31. For Vice President: Supreme Court Justice Frank Murphy. The Republicans chose Senator Arthur Vandenberg for President over Dewey (85-to-46). The "Liberal-Independents": Fiorello LaGuardia.

Meanwhile, delegates learned that in a Gallupesque nationwide poll of college students taken for them by Student Opinion Surveys the standings were: Roosevelt, 34%; Dewey, 27%; Hull, 7%; Vandenberg, 6%; Taft, 4%.

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